TOKYO -- Rumiko Akutsu, 74, supports children who have come from abroad as a Japanese language instructor at an elementary school in Shibata, Niigata Prefecture. When she recently got in touch, she was delighted to talk about the progress of a student now in his third year of junior high school.

She first met him when he was in second grade, having just arrived from Pakistan, and taught him Japanese for three years. Five years later, when they met last summer, he told her that after his soccer team's final match, he and his teammates had been in tears.

"At first, he couldn't speak Japanese at all, but by learning the language, he made friends and found a place to belong. That made me happy," she said.

In a survey conducted by Japan's education ministry in fiscal 2023, 69,123 students required Japanese language education -- a record high. Akutsu has been teaching for 10 years, but the number of people doing work like hers has not expanded, and finding new recruits is not easy. "The situation, where we rely on goodwill, has not changed," she noted.

While challenges are numerous, it is again the season for students in Japan to take their next steps into the world. Akutsu eagerly awaits the messages she'll receive this year from former pupils who have been studying for entrance exams.

This article is from the "Yurakucho" series of columns featured in the evening edition of the Mainichi Shimbun.

(Japanese original by Tomoyuki Hori, Digital News Department)